Setting your goals the right way

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When you start a commit yourself to a long project, whether it is building your own house, loosing weight or investing, one of the most important factors for success is your ability to set realistic goals. Especially, if your project lasts for long time, it is wise to split up some separate, easier to achieve goals. It is even more important at the beginning of project, because usually the foundations of success are built early on. If you have just one, abstract, long term goal, you easily fall back and postpone the important decisions which are made day-to-day, early on.

How to set realistic, long term goals

First, it is important to have a long term goal. That is just because people usually work more efficiently, when they have some "end" on their projects. For me, the goal is to try to be able to retire earlier. Beside my ultimate goal, I have second goal, which is easier to achieve. This goal is to aim for 25% "passive income" from dividends.

Your ultimate goal has to be something, which is not too easy to achieve, nor impossible to achieve. If your goal is impossible to achieve, the goal actually becomes a burden, and hinders your possibilities of success. Having a secondary goal, helps you mentally, because your secondary goal should be something which is still long term, but actually easier to achieve.

Motivational minor goals

People are strange creatures. Small baby steps seems to boost the motivation towards your ultimate goal. It is wise to set up yearly targets for how much you would like to save. At the beginning, your goals might be even quarterly goals. Those small baby steps are the mental foundations on committing your self on long term success.

Of course, every thinking individual knows that having goals does not make you achieve them. If they would, there would be no poverty, hunger or cancer. Curing all those major problems have been ultimate goals of many wise, hard working people. You should not take your goals as measurement of your abilities, they should be considered more as a motivational boosts.

Every achievement you make feels good. Feeling good is basic human need. Everybody should use that basic human instinct to drive themselves towards what they want to achieve.

The Big Backlash

When I started my project, I had quarterly goals. Those goals turned me into over achiever, and I was able to double my initial goals. Then, I started to set longer term goals. For me, that meant yearly goals. For two years, I was able to over achieve my yearly goals too. Then, the great backlash happened. I did not make third yearly goal, because I thought that I've over achieved all my previous goals, so having them is not necessary for success. How wrong I was... Third year, I put less money on my investments than on my first year.

The consumer in me tried to crawl on top. Of course it has a lot to do with other large projects in my life, like building a house and so on. Expenses were coming from all directions. Then, I decided to hop back to the wagon and set myself a realistic goal for rest of the year. After that, I have been able to stick with my plan and I am again on track towards my main goal.

So, remember to use minor goals to motivate yourself towards your ultimate goal.